It’s that time of year, winter is finally over. With spring comes new life and unfortunately for some homeowners that new life could be raccoon babies in the attic. This video was shot last spring by one of our technicians as they performed a search for baby raccoons inside an attic in Burlington, Ontario.
Mother raccoons begin to give birth in March and will continue to have babies through spring and early summer. During this time, mother raccoons search out warm, dark and secure places to raise their young. That search very often ends inside an attic where the find ideal conditions and create plenty of headaches for the human residents inside.
When raccoon babies are born, they are completely immobile for the first 8 weeks. That means that the only way to remove baby raccoons from the attic is by hand. Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control begins every raccoon removal service during the birthing season with an exhaustive search of the den site for any babies. As this video clearly shows, removing raccoon babies from the attic can put you face to face with an angry mother.
Despite the danger, here’s why it’s important to perform a hands-on removal of raccoons.
- In a lot of cases, homeowners will block off the raccoon’s entry point after seeing the mother leave for food. When she returns to find that she can no longer get into the attic the mother raccoon can cause tremendous amounts of damage. In her attempts to reunite herself with her babies she will rip up shingles and other parts of the roof in a desperate attempt to find her babies.
- Another common mistake is to trap and relocate a mother raccoon only to find out that she has a litter of babies in the attic. Without their mother the babies will surely die and inhumane death. Not only that, if they die inside the attic it could result in terrible odour, flies and damage.
Once our technicians have located and removed the raccoon babies from the attic they are placed in a weather-proof box and positioned near the entry area. We then use the mother raccoon’s maternal instinct to lure her out of the attic so that she can re-join her babies. When she does, the exit is sealed behind her.
One by one the mother will relocate the babies to one of her alternate den sites in the area and with all potential points of entry on the home secured the job is complete.
If you find yourself with a family of raccoons in the attic be sure to consider the complications that immobile babies can pose. When in doubt, call the professionals at Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control.
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